EFF leader Julius Malema has criticised the party’s Eastern Cape conference delegates for electing an all-male top five provincial executive structure.
Malema gave the closing remarks at the party’s provincial conference known as provincial people’s assembly, which was attended by more than 1 000 delegates at the Absa Stadium in East London.
Two women, Nokuthula Mlokoti and Zikhona Njoli, were nominated for provincial deputy chairperson and provincial secretary, respectively. Mlokoti lost to the party’s former provincial secretary Mlamli Makhetha and Njoli was beaten by Simthembile Madikizela.
The party’s former Nelson Mandela metro councillor Zilindile Vena was elected the new provincial secretary against the incumbent chairperson Yazini Tetyana.
Addressing the delegates, Malema said: “I’m not proud of this top five, because I will never be proud of anything that doesn’t have women in it.
“It’s a failure by all of you and it’s disrespectful to the women of Eastern Cape and the women of South Africa that you sat at this tent and did not see a single woman worthy to be elected in a leadership position.”
Malema also criticised the election of Makhetha, saying when he was deployed to one of the regions before local government election in 2021, he did not produce a single PR councillor in that region.
He further told the delegates that the people of Eastern Cape are looking to EFF to remove the ANC from power, end corruption, nepotism and skewed service delivery that prioritises people based on their allegiance to the ruling party.
Malema also warned the newly elected provincial leadership that the EFF will not accept anything below 154 000 votes it received from previous elections in the Eastern Cape.
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